Wednesday, January 14, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO (Tech News) - Apple Inc chief and tech icon Steve Jobs death sent shivers through investors who fear a change at the top will chill a product line-up struggling to come up with the next big thing.

Among the offerings was shark fin soup, the controversial Asian delicacy that relies on the fins of sharks, some of which are finned and released in a mutilated state back into the sea. The practice is being blamed for a decrease in shark populations around the world.

The Year of the Ox, which commences Jan. 26, was going to be started with some fin of the shark, which traces its beginnings to the Ming Dynasty in the mid-1300s.

Outraged, Robbins sent e-mails to Barona and alerted fellow scuba divers and watermen. Robbins, citing Web sites and documentaries, detailed why it's inhumane to offer such a menu item. It's been estimated that every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Robbins' e-mail to Dean Thomas, executive chef at Barona, explained his stance

For commercial shark diving operators worldwide the answer to this question would seem obvious. For the past decade the media has shown little interest in correcting the ongoing and rampant shark killing stigma of the Jaws Legacy.

When it comes down to hype and the media's lifeblood, advertising sales, nothing compares to a shark attack on a human. These gruesome media packages dive slow news cycles and explode worldwide with the speed of Santa Ana wildfires.

Knowing this there is absolutely no excuse for shark diving operators who allow negative shark images and video to be presented to the media without any direction or industry leadership. In a word this is, "criminal behaviour" towards the very animals that we as commercial shark diving operators spend years attempting to show in a different light.

If the commercial shark diving industry is to continue with operators enjoying offshore operations in countries that are not their own such as the Bahamas and Mexico this kind of blatant, inexcusable and criminal media mismanagement must end.

The future of two of the western hemispheres best known shark sites absolutely depends on it...and we are losing this battle. A veritable flood of questionable images and video have come out of the Bahamas, Tiger Beach site recently. This dive site isstill under a C and D that all but demands shark protocols for operators and is still under regulatory decision making by the Bahamian government.

Why operators are allowing disturbing video's and images that abjectly defy this Cease and Desist order to be posted on public sites, with little thought towards blow back, will most likely be discussed (heatedly) when this site is shut down.

For commercial shark diving operators whose media skills are not up to the task you have two options.

1. Leave the industry.
2. Clean up your act.

Case in point the Today Show on MSNBC this morning recycling a horrific cage breach video from Isla Guadalupe. This mornings show was watched by 5,998,000 people in the USA alone. Major media is not to blame here. Without the negative images and video we provide them with they cannot skillfully move forward with their well know agenda.

Having a commercial shark diving operation present themwith a video now used to promote and highlight anti shark agendas in Australia will lead to the death of sharks. The true horror of negative shark media.

Responsibility for what becomes anti shark media begins and ends with the operator: